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If you thought it was too late to make a difference, or start a fresh career, look to Glenys Kinnock for inspiration. Helen Barron talks to the woman who became an MEP at 50 after a career in teaching and bringing up two kids
Independent women
“Women rarely have their own identity. They are defined by the people - often men - in their lives,” says Glenys Kinnock MEP as we wrap up the interview.
There are many things you discover about this woman when researching her, and none implies a lack of personal identity. A teacher by profession, she was elected to the European Parliament in 1994 to represent Wales. She travels regularly to Africa on EU business and is the president of One World Action, a Development NGO. She has written three books on Eritrea and Namibia and a collection of interviews with British women, By Faith and Daring.
None of the research highlights the main thing the British public knows her for her husband. And yet it is in this way that she finds herself most frequently described.
As we sit on incongruous velour chairs in an oak-panelled room in Cardiff’s Coal Exchange now a theatre a massive gold-leafed clock detailing high tides and projected coal shipment arrival times winks down at us from another era. It is easy to forget Wales was once a vibrant centre of trade in coal and steel. It is now one of the poorest countries in the EU, as Mrs Kinnock points out, and receives subsidies equal to the most deprived parts of Spain and Portugal.
Coming from this environment seems to have been the impetus for her socialist politics. But what made her suddenly decide to get involved in 1994?
“We lost that election and the option then existed. Before, I had enjoyed teaching, and being able to be with the kids. Neil had a very busy and demanding job and also I had a busy life of my own.
“I don’t really remember thinking about it, it just came out. We were driving to Bristol to see our daughter and I said ‘I think I’ll go for the Euro seat’, and Neil almost drove the car off the road!”
After recovering, he was then extremely supportive, but Mrs Kinnock knew getting selected would be the most challenging task. “There’s no tradition of selecting women in Wales, there are only four women MPs in our whole history. Until Tony [Blair] put in the mechanisms [such as positive discrimination] as he’s done in the Assembly.”
Her other hurdle was being taken for herself. “A lot of people liked me because I was Neil’s wife but a lot were cynical - they thought I was riding on the back of [that]. I had to convince them I was capable of doing the job. And hopefully I have managed to get some credibility for myself.”
Women getting credibility for themselves is one of Mrs Kinnock’s passions. “It won’t happen by osmosis it never will. People won’t give up power freely and easily. [You can’t say] women will get through on merit, because a hell of a lot haven’t. We have improved our record in Wales and will have all-women shortlists for the general election.”
So what is working in Europe the home of work-life, equalities and environmental legislation like? Does it live up to its reputation? “Certainly the European parliament [is good]. We have 30% women, very good crèche facilities, and a women’s rights committee. There is no discrimination against women at any level. And the way of working is consensual and co-operative. It’s not the yah-boo, clubby atmosphere of Westminster.
“We are responsible for huge swathes of legislation now. The parliament has a lot of authority, and the women are at the forefront as much as the men.
“[The UK parliament has always] been geared to men, to lawyers, to bankers. Not to women who need childcare or flexibility. For goodness’ sake, they have a rifle range in the House of Commons and not a nursery! It really speaks volumes.”
“We’re now having discussions on temporary workers which is crucial to the UK we have more people working in temporary jobs than any other European country. But governments are nervous.
“We had the same fight with part-time workers. People said ‘oh, industry will collapse’. But it hasn’t. All that has happened is that women have got entitlements to maternity and all the other rights full-time workers have. It hasn’t brought the world crashing to the floor nor has the minimum wage.”
How about leading by example? Does one MEP work part-time or do a job share themselves?
“It’s very difficult, because you are elected. I don’t know anywhere - however progressive - that has [elected job shares]. And in my job you’re letting people down if you [do it part time].
“But the more women we do elect then the more sensitive we will be able to be in terms of what women’s lives mean and the pressures they have.
The key issue for women in the workplace, according to Mrs Kinnock, is childcare. “Affordable, good childcare that suits the particular needs of the woman. We really need proper state provision. It makes economic sense too. Otherwise you train women as professionals or skilled people and then you lose them and you have to train another lot.”
Much of Mrs Kinnock’s work focuses around Africa and development issues. A subject that can be quite demoralising, and sometimes seems as if there is no solution. When I voice this I catch a glimpse of the formidability that must have helped power her to Europe past the men.
“That’s nonsense, complete nonsense. You could have said that about the whole of Europe a couple of centuries ago.” The key lies not so much in aid, she believes, although that is crucial, but in trade and market access.
“Oxfam’s coffee campaign, for example, focuses on getting people a fair price for what they produce. Companies pay them a pittance for the coffee beans and then turn it into a jar of hugely profitable coffee. Farmers sell their coffee, sugar or bananas when they need clothes, books, school fees, or a trip to the clinic, and they can’t wait for the market.”
Another social justice issue she sees is the unbalanced access to AIDS/HIV anti-retroviral drugs, which means the disease is manageable in the west and a death sentence in places like sub-Saharan Africa. “There is a basic inequality there,” she says. “I work very hard on access to generic medicine, so people can start producing and manufacturing drugs at affordable prices.”
So looking back on life as a mother, a teacher, a wife and now an MEP, would she say her proudest moment comes from work or home? “I think the thing I am proudest of is that my kids have turned out so well. That would be the hardest thing to take if your children had been unhappy or got into terrible trouble. We’ve been very fortunate. They are both very happy and adjusted.”
Did they not find life hard being in the spotlight when Neil was leader of the Labour party? “No they managed that very well. I think Downing Street would have made it harder, though.”
Does not having the Downing Street life seem, in hindsight, a relief then or does she regret it? “Oh yes. It would have meant not another five years of Tory government for one thing! And Neil would have made a fine Prime Minister. But he never had that chance to be tested.”
Almost on cue, we seem to have arrived at her husband just as our hour is up. The MEP who is sick of being defined as ‘the wife of the former leader of the labour party’ laughs in acknowledgement and tells me a story of when she first got to Brussels.
“I was walking across the bridge on my first day, holding all my papers and trying to look self-assured, my own person. I saw a colleague walking towards me with another man. As we drew near I waited for the moment when, for the first time, I would be introduced as Glenys Kinnock, member of the European Parliament. My colleague turned to his friend and said “Have you met Glenys, Stephen’s mum?”
Contact the article's author Helen Barron
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